Pope Benedict XVI is greeted by enthusiastic crowds as he arrives in his Popemobile Greeted by crowds in Hyde Park during his papal tour of Britain 2010, the first visit by a pontiff since 1982. Taxpayers footed the £10m bill for non-religious elements, which largely angered a nation still reeling from the financial crisis. Pope Benedict XVI is the head of the biggest Christian denomination in the world, some one billion Roman Catholics, or one in six people. In Britain there are about five million Catholics but only a quarter of Catholics regularly attend Sunday Mass and some churches have closed owing to spending cuts.